George Davis & Texas Army       George Davis Memoirs

     Mathew Caldwell      Patrick Burk         Edward Burleson           Stephen F. Austin            H. A. Alsbury     Almeron Dickinson      Suzanna Dickinson     Morris G. Hall     W.E. Heard     Andrew Jackson         J. H. Kuykendall      Charles Lockart      J. C. Neil      Andrew Ponton    James W. Robertson   Juan Seguin     Henry Smith      Charley B. Stewart

The Birth Of Texas

In 1830, Gonzales lies on the frontier of Texas, located on the banks of the Guadalupe River, a mile or so downstream from its confluence with the San Marcos. It is the last Anglo settlement , an outpost. When Santa Anna overthrew the Mexican Government in 1832, Gonzales was destined to play the leading role in the Texas Revolution. The citizens of Gonzales would be asked to make the ultimate sacrifice. Eighteen men stood on the banks of the Guadalupe and refused to turn over a small cannon on loan from Mexico. Gonzales sent a total of forty-one men to fight at the Alamo, thirty-two went there knowing there was little chance of surviving. When Susannah Dickinson returned with the news of the fall of the Alamo, Sam Houston ordered Gonzales evacuated and burned to the ground.Gonzales was rebuilt after the Texas Revolution and by the late 1800’s was home to several of the great cattle barons of Texas. Gonzales was to become a gathering point for the huge trail herds headed north.

     Today downtown Gonzales looks almost the same as it did at the turn of the century. Many of the buildings and homes built during the pinnacle years are still in use 100 years later.

Daguerreotype photograph taken around 1850-1860.

George W. Davis saw the Birth of Texas. His letters and memoirs have survived in a family collection for 160 years. This is a firsthand account of Texas in the 1800's. In 1831 Davis found his way to Gonzales. He carried a letter of recommendation and was able to acquire a league of land from the Mexican Government. He was with the Old Eighteen who denied the Mexican soldiers the cannon. Under orders of the Provisional Government of Texas he organized the Gonzales Mounted Volunteer Ranging Company. This organization later became known as the Texas Rangers. Two members of his family, a stepson John Gaston and son-in-law Johnny Kellog rode with the Immortal Thirty Two and died at the Alamo. He was appointed sub contractor for the Texas Army at the Post of Bexar, the Alamo.   After the Texas Revolution, Davis returned to Gonzales and was appointed by Sam Houston to Post Master at Ceuro in Gonzales County. You can find his likeness on the monument at Cost Texas, site of the first shot for Texas Independence, built in 1936 in memory of the Old Eighteen.